New York, NY (Top40 Charts) J-Pop singer-songwriter and music producer, Kenshi Yonezu, designs exclusive illustrations for his UNIQLO T-Shirt Collaboration. Up until now, the merchandise has only been available online and in New York City stores. After selling out, and being restocked online, you can now purchase the t-shirts globally starting today. To celebrate this launch, Yonezu's self-illustrated album artwork is currently on display on New York's
Fifth Avenue UNIQLO storefront. Utilizing the largest and most iconic full-motion digital billboards, the Yonezu campaign is also featured at opposite ends of the world-famous Times
Square bowtie in New York City. The NASDAQ sign at Broadway & 43rd Street is arguably one of the most recognizable billboards in the country. The second sign, located at 47th St & 7th Ave., is one of the largest signs in NYC at 14,000 square feet and is situated next to the selfie-friendly TKTS bleacher seating, and Father
Duffy Square, which offers a bird's eye view of all of Times Square.
Yonezu says "Uniqlo has always been around as a part of daily Japanese life since I was a kid. It's only now that I've finally come to somewhat understand how difficult that must be to uphold. I salute Uniqlo for taking the responsibility of always being around as a part of our daily lives."
The collection is available in 25 markets worldwide, purchase it here!
Adding to this accolade, Yonezu recently released his 5th studio album and celebrated the launch with Fortnite. He became the first Asian artist ever to perform for Fortnite's virtual
Battle Royale Game, and was immediately trending #1 on Twitter worldwide. Physical sales for STRAY SHEEP have officially surpassed 1 million copies, in less than 2 weeks, and the album has charted #1 in 59 Countries. The last time a male solo artist sold over 1 million units was back in December of 2004, 16 years ago. Breaking new records left and right, this album is a social phenomenon full of endless possibilities. According to Billboard Japan, the album also sold 509,127 copies within the first three days of release. This number is the highest initial sales ever since 2008, when Billboard Japan started counting CD album sales for a male solo artist. In addition, the number of shipments of this work has exceeded 1 million.
On August 5th, 6 songs from STRAY SHEEP charted on the Oricon Weekly Streaming Ranking [Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly]. This makes a first for a male solo artist with "6 titles simultaneously entered in the TOP 10," and also the first-ever appearance of 6 titles simultaneously entering the TOP 10.
STRAY SHEEP consists of 15 songs; including Yonezu's previously released smash hit "Lemon," which ranked #1 on Billboard Japan's annual cumulative charts for 2 years consecutively, making history as the first-ever act to do so. Furthermore, it's been certified by the Japan Record Association for the fastest to achieve 3 million downloads, and the music video has broken the Japanese record for the most views; sitting at 600 million currently. "
Lemon" also hit #1 in 76 countries on the Apple J-Pop Charts.
The album wasted no time taking over the iTunes Charts; skyrocketing to #1 under the J-Pop category in over 34 countries/regions, along with garnering various positions within the top 20 All Genres category in 23 countries/regions, 6 of which hit #1. In addition, STRAY SHEEP achieved #1 in 59 Countries/Regions under the J-Pop Apple
Music Albums Chart.
Kenshi Yonezu is no stranger to breaking records and making history; he recently became the first Japanese Artist to hit 5 million Youtube subscribers, with music video views reaching over 2.8 billion total, and counting (Billboard article here). On July 10th, Yonezu released the music video for "Kanden," which skyrocketed to 1 million views in under 2 hours, and it currently sits at 30 million. This single is off his upcoming album, and it debuted at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100, blasting in at No. 1 for downloads with 158,572 units after dropping digitally July 6th; stated by Billboard. The music video for "Kanden" marks Yonezu's 13th music video to reach over 100 million views throughout his career.
